208 W. Theobald — Notes on some of the symhoJs found on the [No. 3, 
modification of the same design, a cross Tsith short arms, and a dot or 
ball in each angle, the radical idea in each case being the same, four 
balls variously arranged, standing for the mystical ‘ Tetragrammaton.’ 
the ineffable name among the Jews of Deity. In Hebrew the 
letters would be I. A. H. 0. ‘I am that I am,’ but the idea is older 
than J udaism, and must be first sought for in the Assyrian conception 
of a male triad and a celestial mother, the four together being the pre- 
cise homologue of the triads or trinities of other religions, (see The 
Great Dionysiak Myth by R, Brown, Vol. I, page 58.) 
In this symbol and the last we have two simple and very archaic 
examples of the two parallel lines which Nature worship has followed, 
viz., the Assyrian fourfold conception of Deity, and the Hindu threefold 
conception of the same power, both of which seem reflected in the 
doctrines respectively taught in the Romish and Reformed churches of 
the present day. 
17. Staff with lateral semicircles. Pig. 136. 
This symbol I regard as a modified form of the caduceus. It is very 
common on the coins and is in reality the form the Caduceus usually 
assumes on them, the whole bearing a rude resemblance to a bale of 
cotton, but beneath which it is not hard to discern the elements of the 
caduceui, rearranged. 
It is curious that this emblem when once established should have 
fallen into desuetude in India as it is essentially related to the lord 
of life Mahadev, whose worship is still so popular there. It may be 
that the emblem had become identified with the jiowers of healing, 
which to the vulgar may not have appeared as connected with the deity 
in question, yet even so, it might have been expected that the serpents 
on the rod would have been sufficient to poi'petnate the retention of the 
emblem in a land where the snake is deeply interwoven with the local 
religion and in particular with the cult of Mahadev. 
In Egypt the snake entwined round the rod of Thoth was doubt- 
less the African cobra, which is identical so far as symbolism is con- 
cerned with its Asiatic representative (Naja tripudians). Now among 
Hindus the utmost I’ospect is paid to this reptile, from mythological 
association, and should the continued sojourn of a cobi-a in a house or 
village be regarded as undesirable, or seem likely in this Kali Yug 
of ours to lead to the death of the reptile from some profane hand, it 
is inveigled or ceremoniously coerced into entering .an earthen pot, 
which is then transported for some distance into the jungle where the 
animal is liberated. 
